Wednesday night we decided to make the trip to Spoon River Speedway near Banner, Illinois for the opening night of the Illinois Speedweek. This would be a Flo Racing event with live television driving the coverage. Open late models would be the featured class with a winners' share of $22,022 and a cool $1,000 to start the feature. Modifieds would be on the under card with a $3,000 top prize and $200 to start We were finally able to shed the winter garb, as temps around 90 degrees greeted us at the picturesque three eighths mile high banked facility hidden down a country lane in the central Illinois countryside. Unfortunately, there was also a stiff southeasterly breeze that blew the crumbs from the track into the grandstands all evening, covering everything in its path.
A solid field of fifty six late models and an announced forty eight modifieds signed in, with hot laps kicking off at the advertised time of 6:00. After late model hot laps, the mods combined hot laps with qualifying. The late models then ran two laps of timing, with Senoia, Georgia driver Ashton Winger topping the overall chart at 13.270 seconds.
Late models then came back with six eight lap heats with victories going to Winger, Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, Stormy Scott, Frank Heckenast Jr., and Hudson Oneal. On the bottom side dominant track, all but Marlar won from the pole, and Mikes' win came from outside row one. The top three from each heat would move to the feature.
Following a half dozen mod heats, the late models came back with a pair of B mains, with again the top three moving on. Pole sitters Mike Spatola, and Brian Shirley grabbed the wins. Mods then ran three much smaller B's and the fields were now set for the money races.
At this point a monster hole had developed between turns three and four, so the track crew brought out the grader as well as the water truck and did a reasonably quick grooming of the surface. Although unable to cure the dust problem, their hard work improved track conditions, giving us two solid grooves for the main events.
Fifty laps would determine the late model winner, and with no provisionals, twenty four cars lined up.Winger took off from the pole to lead lap one in a tight battle with Scott. Opening up a several car length advantage, Winger caught the crowded back of the pack a dozen laps in. Running a strong fourth, Oneal did a 360 degree spin and kept going, avoiding a caution flag, but falling outside the top ten. On the next circuit, Sheppard charged to second in the Rocket house car #1. Quickly closing on the leader, B Shepp was the leader as lap twenty two was scored. Bobby Pierce had lined up in row four, and with the race staying green to the halfway crossed flags, he powered to fourth. Rim riding the top of the high banks, Pierce moved to third on lap thirty, then to second four laps later. He had pulled to the rear bumper of Sheppard when the first caution waved two laps later. On the first attempt at a restart, Pierce took the outside position for the Delaware style lineup, and dropped several spots as the green flag waved. But Winger, who was now in fourth, spun in turn one, negating the start. As the field realigned, Bobby now took the low line before returning to the high side as he cleared Scott for second. While Pierce climbed the ladder, Sheppard moved around, taking the high road in turns one and two, then diving to the bottom in three and four. Sheppard was able to build a small lead as Pierce was now being hounded by Scott. With forty four laps in the books, Pierce went a bit too hard into turn one, slipping over the lip, bringing out a final caution. Scott faded a bit following the restart, with Marlar grabbing second. Tanner English had lined up thirteenth on the grid, steadily worked forward, and charged to third in the closing laps. "Rocket Shepp" increased his lead to a popular win. Marlar, English, Scott, and fourteenth starting Ricky Thorton Jr. completed the top five. Dennis Erb Jr. scored a sixth, while Devin Moran advanced sixteen spots to seventh. Heckenast Jr., Oneal, and Gordy Gundaker finished off the top ten.
The lengthy post race interviews were probably entertaining and informative for the folks watching their TVs at home, but mostly could not be heard by the ticket buyers, but finally the twenty four modifieds came to the track for thirty laps. Kenny Wallace took off from his row one spot, leading Tyler Nicely for one circuit before Tyler grabbed the lead. But it was Nick Hoffman who had the fast hot rod, he cleared Wallace on lap three, then Nicely two circuits later. Only a lap ten yellow flag for a spinner could slow Hoffmans' pursuit of victory. While the #2 checked out, Nicely battled for several laps with Lucas Lee before he was able to secure the runner up spot. Hoffman caught slower traffic with ten laps to go, but he was on point, moving smoothly through the pack. As the checkers waved, it was Hoffman, Nicely, Lee, Mike McKinney, and Wallace.
The action wrapped up just past 10:30, with most of the big crowd staying until the end. The mini series moves on to Lincoln on Thursday followed by MARS events Friday at Farmer City and Saturday at Fairbury. Despite a less than favorable forecast, we hope to return to Lee County Speedway on Friday night. Hope to see you there!
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